Whopper of a change

Thursday

Jan 23, 2014 at 7:52 AMJan 23, 2014 at 7:52 AM

By Tammy Whitacre twhitacre@messengerpostmedia.com

MACEDON/NEWARK — The futures of two local fast food restaurants are taking two vastly different directions.Burger King’s Macedon restaurant has closed, while the Newark McDonald’s is making plans for a brand-new restaurant.Recently, the Burger King restaurant, located in the former P&C plaza in Macedon, closed down without much warning. A representative from the owner, the Kessler Group, said the lease had expired on the building and the company did not wish to renew it. What’s more, the company spokesman said it has no plans to reopen the home of the Whopper in the Macedon area. When the restaurant first opened in Macedon, it sported a massive aquarium that held large brightly colored fish that was quite the attraction.Employees at the restaurant who were close enough to travel to another location were given new positions. Kessler Group, which owns more than 20 of the fast food franchise restaurants in the Rochester region, still owns Burger Kings in Fairport and Victor. There are also Burger King locations in Newark and Williamson.Business in Newark is thriving for the McDonald’s restaurant on Route 31 in the village. Owner Warren Weichbrodt said they have been discussing the reconstruction for about five years now. The plan will have the current building torn down and a new one rebuilt within 90 days. Weichbrodt said construction isn’t expected until possibly the end of this year or some time in 2015.Since the McDonald’s corporation typically owns all its restaurant buildings and leases or owns the land as well, the decision on which style of building will be erected is the company's, Weichbrodt said. That design will be based on local demographics. The company has standard building styles that have changed since the Weichbrodt family, who owns all the McDonald’s franchises in Wayne County, remodeled the Lyons and Wolcott locations. Building styles now tend to lean toward a European style, he said.Plans are currently in preliminary stages, but Weichbrodt said what he can tell residents is that the new building will sit east to west, as opposed to north to south now, and will have two drive-through ordering centers that will merge into one for order payment and pickup. When construction draws closer, Weichbrodt said renderings of the new building will be displayed to give local customers an idea of what it will look like and what the dining area will be. Interior plans have yet to be decided.“As always, we try to do something unique for our customers,” Weichbrodt said.The lot is not big enough to support the Play Place, he added, so it will be eliminated. Once standard in McDonald’s design, Newark’s Play Place — sporting a huge, colorful array of tunnels ending in two slides — is akin to a dinosaur as among the last of its kind.Employees at the Newark location will be offered positions at other locations for those who can travel, Weichbrodt said, and all managers will be relocated during the construction phase. He said the hope is to keep as many of the current employees as possible.